Tag Archives: Bart Peterson

Bart Peterson, JD, Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs and Communications at Eli Lilly, and the keynote speaker of the Research!America’s National Research Health Forum talked with Medscape about the future of research and drug development, and whether cooperation between industry and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can ever truly exist. To see the interview, click here.

What does the current political impasse in Washington have in common with deadly or disabling diseases? They will not cure themselves, and the harm escalates until the “patient” gets expert treatment. There is no place for miracle cures or wishful thinking. The solution isn’t what a given individual or party wants it to be, it’s what solves the problem. Right now, it’s by no means clear what or who will solve the problems — which now include the debt ceiling as well as the lack of funding to run the government. Fasten your seat belts for more turbulence between now and October 17th.

You may have heard that the House passed a bill yesterday to fund NIH, along with several other stand-alone appropriation bills (funding it at an unacceptably low level, I might add — below FY12 levels). Beyond the fact that this piecemeal, slow-walking avoidance tactic of finding a solution to the government shutdown is dead on arrival in the Senate and the White House, this “Sophie’s Choice,” cherry-picking approach to better health has no place in a functioning research and innovation ecosystem, and we spoke out against it. That said, it was gratifying that NIH was singled out as publicly popular and good to see the possibility of new champions emerging who recognize the importance of NIH funding during the floor debate on the bill. But make no mistake, had we and other advocates supported this ill-conceived measure, we would have been supporting the decline of science in this nation. Continue reading →

By Bart Peterson, JD, senior vice president of corporate affairs and communications at Lilly

I recently had a wonderful opportunity to address the National Health Research Forum, hosted by Research!America. As you may know, this important forum brings together leaders from the public and private sectors to discuss pressing matters that affect the future of research and development in our country.

As I mentioned in my speech, from 2000-2007 I had the honor of serving as the mayor of Indianapolis. Although Indianapolis has a solid economic base, I often wondered how other cities in my home state would fare in the headwinds of diverse economic challenges. Indiana is dotted with cities of fewer than 100,000 people all built up around manufacturing – cities that lost their manufacturing facilities to a shifting economy and an increasingly competitive global marketplace. What was going to be the future of these cities? Would they be on the map 50 years from now?

But that said, there were some Indiana cities of the same size that I never worried about at all. I didn’t worry about South Bend or West Lafayette or Bloomington. These are cities of 100,000 people or less, but they are home to the University of Notre Dame, Purdue University, and Indiana University. Continue reading →

Research!America’s National Health Research Forum — held September 12 at the Newseum’s Knight Conference Center in Washington, DC — examined the current and future state of research to improve health. This year’s theme was “Straight Talk about the Future of Medical and Health Research.” Three expert panels delved into different aspects of the research ecosystem.

Research!America’s president and CEO, Mary Woolley, and chair, The Honorable John Edward Porter, opened the program. Porter introduced Bart Peterson, JD, senior vice president of corporate affairs and communications at Lilly who delivered a brief keynote speech.

“We developed an innovation ecosystem, and that ecosystem requires sound public policy. From the private sector perspective, that includes solid intellectual property protection; a fair, rigorous, transparent regulatory system; a market system of health care delivery and pricing that offers choice for patients and health care providers,” Peterson said. “But the public sector has a role far beyond just producing sound public policy … Public funding for research, which is so threatened today, is absolutely critical to the future and we care about that as much from the private sector perspective as anybody else does.”

The first panel, focusing on biomedical research and development, was moderated by journalist Eleanor Clift of Newsweek and the Daily Beast and featured John Crowley, president and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics and a patient advocate; William Hait, MD, PhD, global head of R&D at Janssen Pharmaceuticals; Margaret Hamburg, MD, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and Peterson. The discussion centered on innovation within the pharmaceutical industry and the relationship between companies and regulators. Continue reading →